This Newsweek cover piece is the starting gun of the elite pushback against what could be a new progressive era. Penned by one of the most reliable peddlers of Establishment talking points, Jon Meacham, it ignores a wealth of easy-to-find empirical public opinion data showing the country's progressive majority on most major issues, and instead essentially argues that a President Obama will have to govern America as a slightly more moderate Ronald Reagan. To Meacham, insulated in his chattering class world of dinner parties and television green rooms, America of 2008 is the same as America circa 1980 -- even as the latest presidential and congressional polls suggest the possibility of a massive progressive landslide.

From a pure journalism perspective, it is stunning that the editor-in-chief of a supposed "news" magazine is writing cover pieces that read like cheap Republican Party direct mail, and ignore empirical data. Then again, "objectivity" in the media today is defined as worshiping the status quo, denigrating popular uprisings, and serving as stenographers to power, celebrity and money. So in that sense, this Newsweek piece is -- nauseatingly -- "objective" (and yet, Meacham then wonders why readers prefer the far more empirical Economist to the increasingly unreadable - and strident - conservative agitprop of Newsweek).

The question will be how much this kind of smug propaganda emanating from media megaphones in New York City and Washington, D.C. will impact a President Obama (who will - at least officially - be in an office that is supposed to represent more than the public opinion of Manhattan cocktail parties and Bethesda fundraisers). I'm not sure - in the one chance I had to discuss these issues with Obama, he showed both strong progressive inclinations, but also hesitation to try to challenge the parameters created by the elite. And so you better believe that if we want "real change," it is going to require sustained pressure from the progressive movement - pressure that shows just how totally out of touch the Jon Meachams of the world really are.

Looks like the propaganda machines are getting fueled and oiled in case Obama wins the election...maybe it's their last hurrah before they have to slink back under their rocks.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Looks like the propaganda machines are getting fueled and oiled in case Obama wins the election...maybe it's their last hurrah before they have to slink back under their rocks.

It's not likely that these slugs will slink back anywhere. Their avowed goal now is to handcuff and handicap Obama from day one. This way when they succeed in obstructing him from any real change and reform, they can lay claim to how much a failure his policies and programs are. The sad truth is that they want to ensure no honeymoon period and continue to screw us over while lining their pockets.

_________________“I'm not a member of any organized party. I'm a Democrat.”-Will Rogers

In a week, we have a chance to leave this world behind. If we look at our two candidates, the differences between them are stark. John McCain, who was raised by and accepts the authoritarian model, is evidently never at peace. He is hot-headed, erratic, and has been remarkably cruel. He claims to have principles, but his principles change every time he loses his cool. The more he is pushed, the more it becomes evident that he lives by his own selfish desires -- for money, for power, for women. He's is a classic avoider, who can't even answer the simplest question -- if something "unpleasant" comes up, he changes the subject.

Barack Obama rarely changes the subject, because he is fully capable of looking at an issue and considering it. He seems to have been reared in a non-authoritarian household, by a loving mother and loving grandparents. He thinks that the world is a rational place that can be understood and modified. His own family seems happy and loving. Right wingers think he is shallow, but he isn't shallow -- he's well-adjusted. And we've had two whole years to poke him and prod him and discover this. Obama has grown through campaigning because he has learned from it.

McCain gets ever smaller and more weird as he campaigns because he doesn't understand what is happening to him. When we choose between these two men, we are choosing between two worlds -- the world of ignorance, fear, manipulation, and cruelty, and the world of rational investigation, weighing of options, and planning. This world is a world where sexual preference is not such a big deal, salvation is not an eternal mystery, and life goes on. It's a world where bad things happen, but there is no malign Godly intention behind them. It is world that understands the temptations of human nature and attempts to deal with them rationally and systematically. Some of these attempts will fail, but on balance, not as many as have failed in the last twenty-five years.

Most of my friends see the coming election as the most important we have known. The right wing has damaged our country, our livelihoods, our national honor, and our planet, but not yet fatally. If McCain gets elected, that could change.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman